A two-day manhunt for a released convict suspected of killing four US police officers near Seattle ended today when he was shot dead by a lone patrolman.
Maurice Clemmons (37), had been on the run since Sunday after the murders of the Lakewood Department police officers inside a coffee shop in a suburb of Tacoma, Washington.
Authorities had initially believed the suspect to be holed-up in a nearby home. But they were forced to widen their search after it was discovered that the armed man had fled the scene.
Four people have been arrested for allegedly helping Clemmons escape in the aftermath of the initial shootings.
It is claimed that Clemmons killed Sgt Mark Renninger (39), and officers Ronald Owens (37), Tina Griswold (40), and Greg Richards (42), as they worked on their laptop computers inside a coffee shop in Pierce County.
The suspect had a lengthy criminal record.
In 1989 he was handed a 95-year sentence in Arkansas for a host of offences including robbery and bringing a gun into school. But he was later given clemency by then-state governor Mike Huckerbee.
He was recently arrested for assaulting a police officer.
It has also been reported that on the night before the shootings, Clemmons had bragged that he was going to kill members of the police. But witnesses failed to report the threat until after the coffee shop shootings.
In the aftermath of the slayings, marksmen and negotiators surrounded a property in which Clemmons was believed to be hiding out. But after a stand-off lasting many hours, it was discovered that he was not there and instead was on the run.
It led to a massive manhunt in which police combed the area with search dogs while hundreds of officers were deployed in and around Seattle for signs of the suspect.
A $125,000 reward was also offered for information leading to an arrest.
Clemmons was finally tracked down early this morning. A police officer investigating a stolen car recognised him. Clemmons was carrying a handgun stolen from one of the dead officers. The patrolman ordered him to put his hands up. When he refused several rounds were fired, killing him
Clemmons had earlier received a serious gunshot wound in the initial shooting spree at the coffee shop. It led authorities to believe that he must have had help from friends of family to escape the police manhunt.
“We expect to have maybe six or seven people in custody by the day’s end,” said a spokesman for Pierce County Sheriff. “Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they are all partners in crime.”
AP